Cookies and Cream Double Stuf Macarons

Let me get a few things off of my chest….number one, I am not a professionial macaron maker, nor will I ever claim to be. Number two, I do not follow the typical macaron rules. I am too impatient. Phew, I feel much better. Ok, now we can start.

I adore macarons. Wait, I should say, I adore eating macarons. There is a lovely little macaron shop down the street from my house that I pick a few up on a regular basis and savor every bite. There’s just something about them that makes me so happy. Also, The Bouchon Bakery macarons make my heart sing. If you haven’t had one, be sure to order one in this lifetime. They are amazing.

I have never had any desire to make my own macarons, because I know they are a bit of a process to make and can be finicky to get just right. However….A couple weeks ago, my friend Amanda was visiting and we got to talking about macarons. She has made them dozens of times on her blog and I told her that I’ve never tried making them…not ever. Before I knew it we were preparing a “macaron baking day.” I knew immediately I wanted to make an Oreo version!! We went to Sur La Table and got a few necessities and Amanda showed me the traditional way of preparing macarons. We had so much fun and I learned so much. They turned out lovely. I was still thinking, man I wish the process wasn’t so long!!! Could there possibly be shortcuts?! I was on the hunt to find out.

I came across a blog post from Brave Tart about Macaron Myths that changed my view about macarons forever. Let me explain. Brave Tart is a pastry chef who makes macarons on a very regular basis. She goes on to say she’s tested every step of making macarons and has found that some of the traditional steps that take a good amount of time are not always necessary. I’m talking particularly the step of having to age your egg whites (let them come to room temperature overnight) and letting your macarons sit on a baking sheet for 45 minutes before even getting them into the oven. Now, I don’t mind doing those steps every now and then, but I surely wouldn’t make them on a regular basis with that kind of process involved. After reading Brave Tart’s blog post, she said she has tried preparing her macaroons with egg whites straight from the refrigerator and also baking her macarons right after she pipes them on the baking sheet with the same results! That cuts out hours of time, so I said I am trying it!!

Some of the things you’ll need that you might not have on hand are a food scale (about $20-30), almond flour (about $8), a piping bag and large round tip (about $8)

Let me show you the process of making them….my way.

Here’s everything I used for the recipe. The glass bowls are egg whites and granulated sugar.

These 3 things are a must when making macarons. You have to invest in a little food scale. Mine is by oxo. Found it at Sur la Table for about $30. I know that Bed Bath and Beyond sell them and you can use those 20% off coupons they always mail out. You’ll also need a large round tip and pastry bag. I believe the tip is a size 10, mine in the photograph is roughly 1/2 cm in diameter. Note: I used a large ziploc bag with the pastry tip attached–cut a small snip from a corner of the ziploc and push the tip through–a couple days ago and it works great. If you run out of a pastry bag or just don’t feel like buying one, use a trusty large ziploc bag. You will also need a piping tip.

Bob’s Red Mill makes Almond meal/flour that you’ll need. I’m sure you can find it in the bins of any health food grocery store too.

The scale is really easy to use. You’ll first place your empty bowl on the scale then hit the zero button on the right to bring the number back to zero. Place your ingredients in the bowl once that number is zero. To start, you’ll need 95 grams of egg whites (equal to nearly 3 large eggs) and 65 grams of almond flour.

For the macaron batter, I used ground up chocolate wafers. They are basically the cookie part of an Oreo without the cream. I found mine located on an end cap near the ice cream section of my grocery store. As much as I could scrape most of the cream from an actual Oreo cookie, there’s still remnants left. That’s why I chose to use the wafers.

You’ll need 45 grams of ground chocolate wafers. I placed a handful of the wafers (between 6 and 8 cookies) in a Ziploc baggie, zipped it closed then rolled over them with my rolling pin until finely ground. If you have leftover crumbs they are great sprinkled over ice cream or cupcakes….or spoonfuls of peanut butter.

Ok, now that everything is measured out, you’ll start by adding your eggs and sugar to the mixer. Beat on medium high until the egg whites become stiff. This was another topic brought up by Brave Tart. Some people beat the eggs first for a minute or two before adding the sugar, but she just adds the sugar right away with the same results. I did it this way as well and had no problems. *You can tell by now, that if there are time saving ways, I will hunt them down, lol!

In the above picture, the egg whites are not quite done; this is considered soft peaks. However, we are looking for stiff peaks.

This is what stiff peaks looks like. They stand up when you hold up the beater. Set this aside for a couple minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together your powdered sugar, almond flour and ground chocolate wafers. You can place all of these ingredients into a food processor to mix, but I found just stirring them and running them through a sifter worked fine.

Sift all of these ingredients together. A traditional sifter is the easiest way, meaning the type with the handle that you squeeze. For some reason I do not own one, so I run the mixture through a very fine sieve and that works too. The sieve definitely takes longer. I’ll be purchasing a hand held sifter and report my results. I’m sure it’s the same.

You want your dry ingredients to be nicely sifted like so.

Fold in the egg whites nice and easy. Almost done in picture 2. Note, that you can fold your egg whites into the dry ingredients in batches, but I add them all at once with no problems. Just don’t over mix!!

Done! Be sure to not over mix. Just fold and stir until combined.

You want to place the macaron batter into your piping bag with the round tip attached.

Place parchment paper over a nice large baking sheet. I used the half sheet size. Please note, I tried double stacking my baking sheets (known to bake your macarons more evenly) and I tried just baking on one. Same results, so no stacking of baking sheets needed. Also note, I recommend using the traditional white parchment. I ran out and used the “natural” version above, which I didn’t love.

Ok, there are a few ways you can pipe your macarons onto the baking sheet. Amanda made a great printable circle page where you can trace circles onto your parchment so you can pipe macarons all the same size. Or you can just wing it like I am doing. I counted to about 5 seconds while piping each. The picture shows me just starting the piping. They were all pretty close in size. Depending on how much time you’ve got or how much of a perfectionist you are, choose what’s best for you.

Here’s my macarons after they were piped. You’ll notice after you pipe them they’ll have a little “hat” or “hershey kiss top” as I think it looks like. That little hat falls as you finish piping.

A little close up of the cookie bits sprinkled throughout. Once your done piping, give the pan a good firm tap or two to remove any bubbles.

So, here’s the part where I used to let these sit for 30-45 minutes before baking them. I tried it both ways and I am telling you, I got the same beautiful results baking them right after I piped them! No more waiting, yippee! Bake them in a 280 degree preheated oven for 22-25 minutes.

Here’s what they’ll look like out of the oven. You’ll notice a shell on top with the little “feet” around the edges. A couple things I’ve learned. If you take them out too early, they’ll be REALLY hard to remove from the parchment paper and the centers are somewhat hollow. I did this with one batch a couple days ago that I took out right at 20 minutes. I waited a couple hours and they were still really “sticky” underneath. I found the best results when I gave them 24 minutes. After 5 minutes they practically came up from the parchment with minimal resistance. So, learn from my mistakes 🙂

While the macarons are cooling let’s make the buttercream. Whip a stick of softened butter with a cup of powdered sugar.

Crumble 2 Oreo cookies into the buttercream and beat until combined. Make sure you crumble them pretty good or it’s hard to pipe them through.

Once the macarons are cooled and loosened from the parchment, pair them up with others that are the same size. Place your buttercream into a pastry bag with the same size round tip.

Gently flip the macaron over and pipe just a little dollop of Oreo Buttercream in the center.

Totally optional, you can scrape the Oreo Cream from the Double Stuf Oreo and add it on top of the frosting. I highly recommend it.

Place a small dollop of frosting on top of the Oreo cream layer to help the second macaron stick.

Let’s just say these are little bites of heaven. Store your macarons in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They are great for 3-5 days. Some say they are best eaten on the third day. I say they are best eaten any day, all day 🙂

In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment add your weighed out egg whites, and sugar beating on medium speed. Beat on medium-high until stiff peaks form. Takes close to 5 minutes. See pictures for visuals. Set aside for a couple minutes.

Place the powdered sugar, almond flour and chocolate wafers into a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine. Place in a sifter or fine sieve and sift until all dry ingredients have passed through. Gently fold in the egg whites to the dry ingredients, mixing only until just combined. See pictures for visuals

Place batter into a large pastry bag with a large round tip attached. Pipe rounds, about 1/2 inch apart onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Give a good tap or two of the pan to remove any bubbles.

Bake macarons for 22-25 minutes. You’ll see a shell on top with “feet” around the edges. Let cool completely before removing. Once cooled, take an offset spatula to loosen from parchment. Pair the macarons close in size to each other to prepare for filling.

To prepare buttercream, beat softened butter and powdered sugar until creamy and smooth. Add 2 crushed Oreo Cookies to the frosting, beating until combined. Place buttercream into a medium pastry bag with a large round tip attached and pipe a dollop of frosting on the center of a macaron. Top with the cream center of an Oreo Cookie if desired, place one more smaller dollop of frosting over the cream center then top with a second macaron. See pictures for visuals. Serve room temperature. Store any remaining macarons in the refrigerator.

Makes 22-24 macarons

Please note that all ovens are very different. These tips and instructions are a reflection from my kitchen and my oven. Play around with my tips but baking time may vary depending on individual oven temps. Good luck and have fun!!

Huge thanks to Amanda for opening my eyes to the macaron world and huge thanks to Brave Tart for shedding light on macaron shortcuts!

I am going to make these for my friend’s birthday which is coming up soon! I have one of those cup like sifters with a handle that we squeeze, I used it twice and it stopped working, I like using a fine sieve so much more!
Thank you for this yummy recipe.

[…] am so happy how these turned out. I used the same shortcut methods as my Cookies and Cream Macarons. See that post for full details of the shortcuts. I’d say from start to finish these took about 45 minutes. No […]

Dear Jenny, they look stunning and thanks for the recipe. I have one question about the oven since I use centigrade instead F. 137 degrees centigrade seemed a bit low to me. Do you switch the oven to turbo while cooking or use regular mode? Thanks for your reply back to me:))
Pinar

[…] oreo filling was going into the middle of these delicious treats. The site we got this recipe from, Picky Palate, suggested to count out 5 seconds while piping. I learned that this works while keeping consistent […]

I made these today and they turned out fantastic. I’m relatively new to macaron making so I’m still trying to get enough experience under my belt to determine what works best for me. This recipe worked out the best for me out of about 10 different recipes that I have tried. I’m wondering if it was the 280 degrees F. that made a difference. I did let the piped macarons sit out for at least 20 minutes and then I baked them one pan at a time. So the last pan of macarons had been sitting on the counter for a good hour and those were the macarons that turned out the best! Thanks for a great recipe and great instructions.

i just made these and used amanda’s circle printout but it made the macarons too small to use the oreo filling. bummer! this was my first attempt at macarons and they were a success! thanks for making it so easy! next i am trying the cinnamon toast crunch ones. i’ll let you know how they turn out!

[…] I knew when I was ready to try my hand at making macarons, I would try some of the shortcuts Jenny talks about here. No need to age the egg whites, don’t worry about their temperature or humidity and drying […]

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Welcome to Picky Palate, my online kitchen! You'll usually find me with a cookie in one hand and a salad in the other. It's all about the balance :) The recipes you'll see are my creations. The Picky Palate Cookbook is now available. Enjoy!